ISS astronauts ate the initial forever space-grown lettuce

Japanese astronaut
Kimiya Yui, NASA's Kjell Lindgren and Scott Kelly of the journey 44 crew
nibbled on red sprigs of romaine lettuce making this the first time anybody has
eaten food cultivated in space.

Astronaut Kelly feels it tasted fine and a bit
like arugula. Certainly, trial tasting space crops was only the first step. The
Expedition 44 crew members also froze half of the lettuce yield, which the team
will send back to Earth for scientific examination.

Space
gardeners

While it may sound eccentric
for lettuce to taste something like lettuce, these luxuriant greens were grown
in a very dissimilar atmosphere than here on Earth. The lettuce developed a
deep red color because of being mainly grown in an atmosphere lit by red and
blue LEDs.

Also thanks to the lightness
of space, the lettuce didn't not cultivate in a conventional plot of soil.
Instead, NASA seeded a rooting "pillow," which contains the essential
nutrients and mud for the plants to obtain root and completely grow in 33 days.